Tag: 1940s
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The Divine Wind: Japanese Kamikazes of World War II
Image: Japanese high school girls wave farewell to departing Kamikaze pilots. “There was a hypnotic fascination to the sight so alien to our Western philosophy. We watched each plunging kamikaze with the detached horror of one witnessing a terrible spectacle rather than as the intended victim. We forgot self for the moment as we groped…
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The Catastrophe of Exercise Tiger, April 28, 1944.
Image: Rehearsal landing by US forces at Slapston Sands, Devon, in April 1944. The Catastrophe of Exercise Tiger, April 1944. In the early hours of April 28, 1944, a convoy of eight American LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank), carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade, took part in Exercise TIGER and were…
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Lieutenant Omer Lévesque, DFC (U.S.), Air Medal (U.S.): Canadian Pilot Who Flew during World War II and the Korean War
Image: Sergeant Pilot Omer Levesque is assisted into his parachute prior to flying a mission while assigned to No. 401 Squadron, RCAF, on July 7, 1941, during World War II. Omer “Trottle” Lévesque served as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the Second World War. He flew many sorties over France and…
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Former Japanese Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo Attempts Suicide. September 11, 1945.
Image: General Hideki Tojo lies semiconscious, limp in a chair with a gaping bullet wound just below the heart after a botched attempt to kill himself as American soldiers surround his house. September 11, 1945. On September 11, 1945, former Japanese Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo attempted suicide as American soldiers arrived at his home…
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Andrée De Jongh – To Fight Without Killing
With Brussels now liberated, we look back at a woman who played a role in resisting the German occupation and helping downed Allied airmen. Andrée was born in 1916 in Schaerbeek, a suburb of Brussels in German occupied Belgium. When Belgium capitulated on 28 May 1940, she volunteered to work in a Bruges hospital where…
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The Execution of Canadian Private Harold Pringle. July 5, 1945.
Image: Private Harold Pringle. The last Canadian military member to be executed. The Execution of Private Harold Pringle If the Canadian public found out, there would be hell to pay. The war had been over for nearly two months, after all, and during World War II, no other Canadian soldier had been convicted of murder…
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 